Thursday, February 22, 2007

How To Become Very Hungry at 11am

Read Part 1 of BG's latest post. Almost enough to motivate me to go on a food shopping spree and spend the rest of the week causing chaos in my kitchen. (He's right about the Le Creuset French Oven, btw. Those things are awesome.)

Could be dangerous though - I have a Whole Foods, a Trader Joe's, and a Dean and DeLuca's all in walking distance from my apartment... Mmmm...

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Things I Did During My "Snow Day"

Yesterday, like many others in the North East, I was able to reap the benefits of a "Snow Day". Yes, I was given the opportunity to work from home since the conditions were so atrocious. Working at home provides some added benefits that working from the office just doesn't provide.

Here is a list of things I did yesterday:

1. Got out of bed at 9am2. Wore my bathrobe for the entire day3. Played Playstation (I am still playing Final Fantasy XII)4. Got talked into a small buy-in small-field Omaha High Rebuy tournament by Daddy and Donkeypuncher5. Managed to win the whole thing6. Really

I can't recall even playing in an Omaha High tournament before, let alone a rebuy. Weird. Maigrey was railbirding during the final table - which means she got to see me give away most of my stack when we were three-handed. Despite that setback I managed to get Heads Up, though I was outchipped by over 4 to 1. Maigrey was getting very annoyed at my passive play pre-flop when we were HU, but since I felt I was outplaying him post-flop... why make the pots bigger than they have to be?

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

A Valentine's Message From Full Tilt

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Best in Show

Last night I got home from work, tired and intent on getting my drunk on and playing some poker. Sometime during the day the notion of trying to satellite into FTOPs #1 had occurred to me. Unfortunately $70+ bucks in sats didn't cut it, and I was forced to come to terms with the fact that the first event of the tournament series would go on without me.

At a loose end, I considered my options. I was still intent on some tournament action, but what? Though I was feeling tipsy and masochistic, a $22 Rebuy on Stars didn't quite seem to fit the bill - not to mention I had been in wonderful shape in a $11 Rebuy on Wednesday night before playing a flopped set of Aces so badly I still get the shakes.

At 9pm, however, were the Daily Double tournaments on Full Tilt. For those of you who don't know, these are two nightly tournaments that kick off at the same time. $10+2, with the extra juice going into a "jackpot" pool to reward people who do well in both tournaments. (For more details, go here).

So I joined both tournaments, while trying to keep an eye on the bloggers who were battling in the FTOPS. I was getting my drunk on, chatting away, and smoking the occasional cigarette. I started out reasonably well in both, and the notion of cashing in both began to occur to me. Though we have multi-tabled tournaments, it was a little different to be playing two different tournaments simultaneously that were at exactly the same stage, with the same structure - I found myself giving slightly more focus to the one where I was lower in chips, which is completely natural I figure.

I managed to push through the bubble in both, and shortly thereafter was able to chip up in both. All of a sudden the notion of being able to go deep in both tournaments looked like a real possibility. Eventually though I met my comeuppance, but not before doing some damage:

Cashing in both tournaments gave me a share of $800 or so (to be shared amongst all who double-cashed), which appeared like it would be $40 or thereabouts. By finishing so deep in both tournaments I had a real shot at the "Best Average Finish In Both Tournaments", which MiamiDon dubbed "Best in Show".

After busting I was too drunk and tired to be able to figure out whether it looked like I was going to win it or not... and paranoid enough to be worried that I wasn't. Maigrey appeared online and expressed her opinion that I had it in the bag. So much so, in fact, that she offered a bet of $5 that I had it. I gladly took the action, figuring that the $5 hedge would go towards beer to quell the pain.

I wasn't sure when the Daily Double jackpot results would be calculated, so I eventually retired for the evening still unsure if I had caught the judges' eyes. This morning I checked the Daily Double website, and saw this:

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Happy Hammer Day!

Ah yes, the glory that is the date composed only of 2s and 7s (if we carefully ignore those upstart 0s). Pauly wrote a fantastic little post about the History of the Hammer, so as part of the festivities I thought I would list a few of my favourite all-time Hammer Drops (where I have been the Dropper, as opposed to the Droppee). And one two of them I didn't even write!

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

You May Be Addicted If...

It's been a while since I had a run at some games online (the whole online payment hassles being somewhat problematic - I haven't had a look at the new FT thing yet), and the last time I played live was in a couple of bar SnGs - so not exactly high stakes. This weekend I was out of town, visiting a friend of mine, and chilling out... so no poker for me. No biggie, right?

Apparently not, as it seems all the dreams I can remember having this weekend involved poker. Some of them seemed to be exclusively about the game. On Sunday night I remembered having a dream where I was playing a cash game. It was some weird Hold 'Em/Omaha variant, where instead of 2 or 4 cards being held by each player you had 5 or so (maybe up to 7). I remember one hand where I had accumulated a large stack with at least one other large stack at the table. I can't recall the pre-flop action, but the flop comes down J-T-T (no idea of suits). I look at my cards, and see that amongst them I have two Ts. Gold.

I decide to play it fast, and bet out. The other large stack raises me, and I happily shove. The other big stack calls, and shows... two Ts in his hand as well, which also gives him quads. He also has two Js in his hand. This becomes problematic when another J hits on the turn. Yes, his quad Ts turned into quad Js, beating my hand.

I can't recall what the river was.

Here's the thing - my dream-self refused to hand over the pot. I went through the hand again and again, and I even went as far as to try and work out if I had a possible straight flush (good to know that my dream-self knows what beats what). In my dream it seemed like a long time elapsed before I finally realised: hey, this deck has six Ts! Misdeal!

This may be a signal that I am jonesing for some cards, big time.

Another signal arrived last night, when I had a dream that (fleetingly) involved Waffles. I find this more than a little disturbing. I better play some cards before things take a (larger) turn for the worse.

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